After the Black death : economy, society, and the law in fourteenth-century England, the Ford Lectures for 2019 /
Bailey, Mark,1960-author.
The Black Death of 1348-9 is the most catastrophic event and worst pandemic in recorded history. After the Black Death offers a major reinterpretation of its immediate impact and longer-term consequences in England. After the Black Death studies how the government reacted to the crisis, and how communities adapted in its wake. It places the pandemic within the wider context of extreme weather and epidemiological events, the institutional framework of markets and serfdom, and the role of law in reducing risks and conditioning behaviour, drawing upon recent research into climate and disease and manorial and government sources. The government's response to the Black Death is reconsidered in order to cast new light on the Little Divergence (whereby economic performance in north western Europe began to move decisively ahead of the rest of the continent) and the Peasant's Revolt of 1381. By 1400, the effect of plague had worked through economy and society, having wide-ranging implications. After the Black Death rescues the end of the fourteenth century from a little-understood paradox between plague and revolt, and elevates it to a critical period of profound and irreversible change in English and global history.
Includes bibliographical references (pages 341-368) and index.
1 Introduction -- The Black Death -- Social and economic change in Fourteenth-century England -- 2 Old problems, new approaches -- Introduction -- The institutional framework on the eve of the Black Death -- The land market -- The labour market -- The capital market -- The commodities market -- The law and legal culture -- Conclusion -- 3 Reaction and regulation, 1349 to 1380 -- Introduction -- The anatomy of a crisis, 1348 to 1353 -- Government reaction and regulation -- A seigniorial reaction? -- Villein landholdings and tenurial change -- Personal servility -- Conclusion -- 4 A mystery within an enigma. The economy 1355 to 1375 -- Introduction -- Reconstructing economic change -- GDP per head -- Prices and wages -- Agricultural output -- The land market -- Non-agricultural output -- Explaining economic change -- Demand-side buoyancy -- Supply-side shocks -- Conclusion -- 5 Injustice and revolt -- Introduction: the causes of the Peasants' Revolt -- Serfdom and the law in the Peasants' Revolt -- Serfdom and the revolt -- The law and the revolt -- Rethinking injustice, 1349 to 1381 -- The leasing of hundreds -- Implementing the labour and price-setting legislation -- Conclusion -- 6 A new equilibrium? Economy and society, 1375 to 1400 -- Introduction: a new equilibrium? -- Economic change -- GDP per head -- Prices and wages -- Agricultural output -- The land market -- Non-agricultural output -- A golden age for the peasantry? -- Social conflict and change -- Rural conflict in the late 1370s -- Rural conflict after 1381 -- Conclusion -- 7 The decline of serfdom and origins of the 'Little Divergence' -- Introduction: the Black Death and the 'Little Divergence' -- Institutional change after the Black Death -- Output per head -- Sectoral shifts within the economy -- Non-agricultural employment -- Decline of serfdom -- Contractual tenures -- Explaining the decline of serfdom -- Conclusion -- 8 Conclusion.
The Black Death of 1348-9 is the most catastrophic event and worst pandemic in recorded history. After the Black Death offers a major reinterpretation of its immediate impact and longer-term consequences in England. After the Black Death studies how the government reacted to the crisis, and how communities adapted in its wake. It places the pandemic within the wider context of extreme weather and epidemiological events, the institutional framework of markets and serfdom, and the role of law in reducing risks and conditioning behaviour, drawing upon recent research into climate and disease and manorial and government sources. The government's response to the Black Death is reconsidered in order to cast new light on the Little Divergence (whereby economic performance in north western Europe began to move decisively ahead of the rest of the continent) and the Peasant's Revolt of 1381. By 1400, the effect of plague had worked through economy and society, having wide-ranging implications. After the Black Death rescues the end of the fourteenth century from a little-understood paradox between plague and revolt, and elevates it to a critical period of profound and irreversible change in English and global history.
Black Death
Diseases and history
Black Death.
Diseases and history.
Economic history.
Politics and government.
Social conditions.